Alessandra Cecchi Langella

This character is introduced to the reader in the prologue by the name Sister Lucrezia, a nun who has recently passed away at Santa Vitella's Convent in August of 1528. During a routine cleansing of the body made necessary by a local plague outbreak, it is discovered that Sister Lucrezia has a tattoo on her body that extends from her shoulders to her sex. The reader expects from this that this character will not be an ordinary woman, but someone who has lived an extraordinary life. The reader will not be disappointed.

The novel is essentially an autobiography written by Sister Lucrezia in the months before her death to be used as something of a confession. The autobiography begins with the sister, then known as Alessandra Cecchi, is only a young girl. Alessandra is the daughter of a wealthy cloth merchant. The father has brought a painter...